Pillow Talk

My Bf threw out his back  last weekend, so I ran into to Bed Bath & Beyond to grab him a heating pad, an ice pack, and some goodies while his non-mobile self waited in an 'almost comfortable' position in the car.
I told him I would be quick.

Uhhh.......about that: I should have known better.
No trip to BB&B sticks to the list. It's unpossible.

My intentions were good, but the '$4.99 & Under' pillow bin was better. 

I may have definitely went a little pillow crazy.

Mostly neutral colors with interesting texture, embroidery, or accents that go well with the furniture and fabrics already in my house.

11 pillows for about $45, when most of them were in the $30/$40 dollar range each at full retail price. Not too shabby!

Fill types:

5 are down-filled, the rest are cotton

Coverings:

4 are silk, 3 felted wool, 1 chartreuse sweater-knit, 2 cotton, and 1 HAS SPARKLES!!

Captn. Sparkles has already received a kidnap threat. But you just go ahead and try Michelle; I will take you down like a cheetah on an antelope. Except with way more shrieking, wheezing, and jiggling from both of us. Somebody might loose a shoe or an earing. Who knows, it could get crazy. Moral of the story: not worth it.

Idle treats aside; 'That's an unreasonable amount of pillows!' you might say, especially since I already have a handful of pillows. 

Nonsense. 

Don't you love how lush and inviting a seating area or bed full of pillows looks? Well I know I do. 

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I've got a lot of seating both inside and out on the patios that can use some pillow-licious comfort:

outdoor

1 couch, 1 rocking chair, 2 side chairs

indoor

1 couch, 1 chair & a-half, 3 comfy chairs, 1 settee, and 1 big queen bed.

So comfortable and REM-inducing, I miss it when I don't sleep there.
It could use some flair to make it as pretty as it is comfy.

With all the available spots, I'm sure the new pillows will quickly find happy homes.

I'm happy that the Bf's didn't/couldn't turn around to see me loading 2 big BB&B bags o' pillows into the trunk. My excuse for the delay was long lines.....sorry hun; pillows' out of the bag now. (bazinga)

;)


-Lindsay

Recent Projects - from the Land Where Nothing Ever Gets Finished

As is pretty clear: new posts have been MIA lately.
I blame a lack of time, a bad habit of not finishing projects, and my constant failing to take some damn pictures of the things I do get done!

Below are a few of the projects I've been working on recently, in no particular order.
As I get my $h!+ together and finish them up, I'll post a rundown on each.

• Mounted my TV on the wall.
- Getting rid of the massive entertainment center and putting the tv up on the wall has totally changed the living room.

Makes my living room hotel-sexy.

• Worked on screening in the back porches.
- Started on this in the spring, and when it got hot outside I got lazy. 
- Came back to it his week and discovered a roadblock I'll have to overcome with a bit of rework. But, progress is being made.

Patio progress. Catio creation.

• Reupholstered 3 old office chairs for use in the dining room.
- Related pattern (chevrons) and color (pinks!).

$5 each, and now all sassy.

- And made a bunch of coordinating pillows.

Modeled by the glamour-puss.
Meee-ooow

• Customized and hung a new dining room light.
- Changed my original plan from this post, but the result is close.

Real pictures to follow.

• Refinished a mid-century modern dresser and converted it into an entertainment center.
- Waited forever for the right piece to come along, and am trying to keep it classic enough to do Don Draper proud.

This was an exercise in patience and high # sandpaper.
I cant' wait to be finished and show you more. It's crazy gorgeous.

• Picked up a couch and two chairs from Craigslist and skinned them for their leather.
- Then washed and conditioned the heck out of it.
- Then made a purse out of said leather.

Lots of oiling. And shooing away cats who wanted to lick up ze oil.

• Received a used OTR microwave from the BF's parents to replace my broken one.
- Pictured below is die kaputt maschine. Mounting is in progress for the new-to-me zapper.

Best looking appliance when I moved in: only one that totally didn't work.
'Best' being SUPER relative.

• Mounted my grandfather's antique tools.
- For display and ease of use.
- Progress has gone at the same (snail's) pace as setting up the office/second bedroom.

Aaah. Love, love, love this project.
More to come!

• Relined an antique humpback trunk from my grandmother.
- Removed the old lining and blitz cleaned 40 years of dried mold. During which; the house smelled kind of good, in a granny's-basement sort of way.

Creative fabric manipulation 101.

• Played florist and created all the flowers for a friend's event.
- Tons of happy flowers to honor the passing of her beloved aunt.

10 arrangements, 2 Xl altar pieces, and a 24' broken heart.

• Found and shined up some old silver pieces.
- Sunday afternoon thrift store browsing.
- $20 in my pocket got me both of these AND a bangin smoothie. #winning

A good deal + a little elbow grease = not-so-shabby chic accent pieces.

• Turned a retired firefighter coat into a throw pillow cover.
- Will be a wedding present for a fellow firefighter, made from his old coat.

The most ridiculously complicated 'easy' project ever.

• Made a fuse box cover.
- Out of leftover paint chips from picking my wall colors.

For an ugly eye-level fuse box.

• And spent some quality time with my favorite furry guy.
- Like all good animals, anytime his person is on the floor for more than 10 seconds(dining room chair upholstering, in this case); it means PLAYTIME NOW.

He managed to get himself stuck in a bag handle and dealt with it by flopping over and looking cute.
Good call, actually.

One of these days I will find the missing hardware, cut the last piece, install the whatever, take a picture, or write a post about each of these projects. In the meantime, they are already improving The Cabindo, half-finished states and all. 

At the end of a recent post, John from Young House Love touched on being content with a home in-progress. I'm accepting that more and more, and it helps that most of my big projects are to the point that I don't have multiple construction zones 24/7. Home feels like home when I get there, rather than a to-do list. Theres still plenty to tackle, but I'll get there eventually.
My wallet surely appreciates the lul. Though it feels too long since I've last seen my buddy Mary at the Home Depot paint counter.....

-Lindsay

Sunny Spot Furniture Swap-out

It's been a very enjoyable, very busy end of summer. But wait: I don't have to go back to school, and it's still hot as heck outside; so I'll keep on keepin on!
I have crammed ALOT into the past couple weeks though, most of it life (not house) related, and am clearly slackin on posts.

Today I'll show you a simple change that has had a big impact on my living room.
Since I'd moved in, my TV was kept in a nice Pier 1 solid hardwood entertainment center.

The living room at thanksgiving, prior to my actual living at the place.
A first attempt at putting furniture against walls. This is not the current layout.

The cabinet ate a good chunk of floor space and kind of closed off the areas in front of each flanking window. It was not being utilized for storage, only TV holding, and I thought I could do better.
After recently mounting the TV (on the left hand wall of the picture above), the cabinet really served no purpose and like so many items before it: the time had come for this little big entertainment center to spread its wings and go.

As usual, Navy helped me get it ready.

At the same time, I'd arranged to sell a red chair and ottoman because no one ever used them and they took up a lot of room.

I am always pleasantly surprised at the lovely people I meet through Craigslist (just buying/selling, not personals!), and this chair buyer was no exception. Super sweet lady! Very 'favorite aunt' type. Through our conversations, we decided I should shoot her an email whenever I'm looking to unload any furniture: as she loves doing restoration projects too. Uhhh....ok! Thats a great go-to!
I asked her if she happened to need an entertainment center as well, and luckily she did. I bought the thing for $30 from a firefighter friend and got plenty of use out of it, so was happy to give it away and free up some space.

I'd picked up a green velvet easy chair off of Craigslist for free to put between the windows in place of the entertainment center. It compliments the style of the couch and other chair I have in the room, brings in a different texture, and is suuuuuper comfy.
Above it I hung a 'time lapse' drawing I'd done in college of my then-roommates in our living room; moving about and getting re-drawn every 5 minutes. It's a favorite of mine that my brother had on loan for years. I'm so happy to have it back and be reminded every day of my good friends in that goofy college house. Clearly I'm biased, but I also think it looks pretty sweet too.
These two things together make a happy little green spot to sit and enjoy the sun. Navy the model-cat demonstrates:

The windows face south, so it really is that bright in there during the day.
Supposed to be feng-shui good or something like that.
But whatever; I'm just happy to photosynthesise from the couch.

To the left, there is a spot for the most attractive cat scratcher I've come across yet. For anyone that owns a cat: you'll know a subtle, understated cat scratcher that doesn't cost beaucoup bucks is hard to find. This one came from TjMaxx, but if they had 2 I would have bought them both. I hope the fur-monsters don't destroy it too quickly!
To the right is a small table I'd refinished awhile ago which can be a landing place for drinks, and currently houses the painted fan and obligatory nick nacks. Cuz no horizontal surface in my very-lived-in house goes without some 'artfully' arranged clutter.

Green down pillow from TjMaxx
Chevron scrap-fabric pillow.
Navy & her favorite baby.

When I say 'model cat', I really mean it. She was half way across the house and was more than happy to get scooped up, placed on the chair, and sit still. So much so that she started purring and meowing at me. I should hire her out to an animal talent agency to finance my Home Depot addiction. She'd be such a cute enabler......

Chevron fabric was leftover from dining room chair upholstering.
More on that later!

One more shot, just because I finally remembered to take pictures while it was light out.

-Lindsay